Amazon Web Services is making a concerted effort to attract developers to the cloud, today announcing a trio of tools -- CodeDeploy, CodeCommit, and CodePipeline -- for getting code into the cloud and managing it afterward.

CodeDeploy, as the name suggests, is a service for deploying released code to a "fleet" of EC2 (Elastic Compute) instances while leaving as much of the fleet online as possible. "It can accommodate fleets that range in size from one instance all the way up to tens of thousands of instances," said Jeff Barr, chief evangelist for Amazon Web Services, in a blog post.

In CodeDeploy, an application revision is sent to EC2 instances -- a deployment group -- and designated scripts also can be run. YAML-formatted files are used to describe application and deployment groups. It can be used from the AWS Management Console, the command-line interface, or through a set of APIs.

Codeship, which offers a continuous delivery platform, is already announcing its integration with CodeDeploy. Codeship users can set up a continuous integration and automatically deploy to CodeDeploy after tests are passed.

CodeCommit, meanwhile, is a managed revision control service that hosts Git repositories and works with Git tools so that developers don't have to worry about hosting, scaling, or maintaining source code control infrastructure. Because CodeCommit runs in the cloud, it works well in situations where a development team works in multiple locations or involves collaboration with other partners. "CodeCommit will store code, binaries, and metadata in redundant fashion with high availability," Barr said. "You will be able to collaborate with local and remote teams to edit, compare, sync, and revise code."

The third tool, CodePipeline, is a service for automating the software release process. Developers can design a workflow and shepherd code through staging, testing, and release. While it works with third-party tools, CodePipeline is a self-contained solution, Barr said. "You'll spend more time on features and less time on infrastructure," he noted. "You will be able to test each code change as you make it, with the assurance that it will have pass through whatever test gates that you define before it is released to your customers."

Analysts see Amazon Web Services’ strategy as embracing both developers and application lifecycle management. "This is a strong move for AWS to amplify its appeal for developers, and they seem to be in the process of building stronger focus on their developer ecosystem," said IDC analyst Al Hilwa.

Analyst Stephen O’Grady, of Redmonk, said that Amazon is now offering broader application lifecycle management. "More and more applications today are built using continuous build/integration cycles and then deployed to arrays of machines, and while Amazon has traditionally left this to partners, it's natural for it to be adding these capabilities. It probably makes for interesting conversations with partners, but this is what every platform does eventually."

While CodeDeploy is available today, Amazon is holding off on revealing release dates for CodeCommit and CodePipeline.

This story, "Amazon Web Services entices developers to the cloud with a trio of new tools" was originally published by
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